This website is dedicated to my random thoughts on movies. It will contain movie reviews and random musings.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Ranking the Best Actor Oscar Winners: 20-11

We're almost done - 10 legitmately great performances this time.

20. Burt
Lancaster, Elmer Gantry (1960)

Burt Lancaster was a great actor, and his Elmer
Gantry is one of his best performances. His is a drunken travelling salesman,
who “transforms” himself into a hellfire spouting preacher, whose past will
eventually catch up with him. The film makes good use of Lancaster’s ability to
be both over the top, and remarkably subtle. By virtue of what a strong year it
was, I don’t think you can say Lancaster should have won the Oscar this year –
out of the nominees, Jack Lemmon delivered the best performance in The
Apartment, and brilliant work by Carl Boehm in Peeping Tom, Anthony Perkins in
Psycho, Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita and Jean-Paul Belamondo in
Breathless are all arguably better than Lancaster’s work. Still, considering Lancaster
should have won for films like Sweet Smell of Success (1957) – when he wasn’t
even nominated and Atlantic City (1981), where he was, it’s hard to complain
too much. And his work in Elmer Gantry, although not my first choice that year,
is still brilliant.

Is It Their
Best Work: Lancaster had such
a long, brilliant career that although I think he’s great as Elmer Gantry, I
cannot say it’s his best work. Perhaps The Leopard or Sweet Smell of Success of
Atlantic City is – but that just hints at the surface of his career.

Who Should
Have Won (Out of the Nominees): I
loved Jack Lemmon in The Apartment – which would have been a more fitting
winner for Lemmon’s career than either of his Oscar wins for Mister Roberts or
Save the Tiger.

Who Was
Overlooked Completely: Anthony
Perkins performance in Psycho is one of the most iconic in cinema history – and
at least should have received a nomination.

19. Ray
Milland, The Lost Weekend (1945)

It has become a cliché that actors playing drunks
win Oscars. But that doesn’t diminish the greatness of Ray Milland’s
performance in Billy Wilder’s excellent 1945 drama, about a weekend in the life
of a drunken writer, where he blows off everyone he cares about to get drunk,
before finally realizing he has a problem. Milland delivered several great
performances in his career (Dial M for Murder springs immediately to mind), but
none greater than this one. The Lost Weekend isn’t counted among Wilder’s very
best films too often, despite the fact that it also won Best Picture – but I
guess that’s more because of a resume that includes Double Indemnity, Sunset
Blvd., Ace in the Hole, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment and countless others,
but it should be. And Milland’s performance in one of the big reasons why.

Is It Their
Best Work: It’s certainly the
best performance from Milland that I have seen.

Who Should
Have Won (Out of the Nominees): Out
of the nominees I have seen, Milland was the right choice.

Who Was
Overlooked Completely: Edward G.
Robinson is great in Fritz Lang’s Scarlett Street as a man who gets away with
murder – but not really.

18.Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune (1990)

When Jeremy Irons won his Oscar for Reversal of
Fortune, one of the people he thanked was David Cronenberg, an acknowledgement
that Cronenberg gave him an even better role two years earlier in Dead Ringers,
which lead him to the podium that night. Having said that, Irons is brilliant
as Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune as well – cold, calculating,
undeniably a psychopath, but perhaps not guilty of putting his wife into a coma
– a crime he goes on trial for. Reversal of Fortune represents Irons at his
peak – just like the late 1980s and early 1990s represented the peak of his
acting career. None of the other nominees that year really come close, so this
one was a no brainer.

Is It Their
Best Work: No – Irons thanked
David Cronenberg in his acceptance speech, and his work in his Dead Ringers
from 1988 truly is his best.

Who Should
Have Won (Out of the Nominees): They
got it right out of the nominees.

Who Was
Overlooked Completely: Ray Liotta’s
performance in GoodFellas truly is great. I’ve never been sure why he didn’t
get more recognition for it.

17. Sean Penn,
Mystic River (2003)

Sean Penn’s performance in Mystic River is, to me
anyway, the best one he has ever given. You can make a case for Dead Man
Walking or Milk or Sweet and Lowdown or the vastly underrated The Assassination
of Richard Nixon – and probably several others as well – but to me, his
performance as a grieving father who lashes out violently against the person he
thinks killed his daughter is Penn’s finest hour. This Penn is at his method
acting, brooding best, and he finds layers in his character that are usually
not there is performances like this, or in movies like this. Mystic River ranks
up with Unforgiven as one Clint Eastwood’s finest films – and the share a
similar theme about of violence and regret. And Penn has never been better than
he is here. Perhaps Bill Murray should have won this year for Lost in
Translation, but I’m not really going to complain about it.

Is It Their
Best Work: It’s arguable – his
work in Milk, Dead Man Walking, Sweet & Lowdown and several others is just
as great.

Who Should
Have Won (Out of the Nominees): I’ve
always been torn between Penn and Murray – at the moment, I’m leaning towards
Murray.

Clark Gable is, of course, best remembered for
playing Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. But if there is a second iconic
role in Gable’s career, it’s that of Peter Warne, cynical reporter, in Frank
Capra’s wonderful comedy It Happened One Night. Gable’s pitch perfect comic
timing, and undeniable chemistry with Claudette Colbert helped the film to
become the first film ever to win Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and
Screenplay awards (a feat only matched by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and
The Silence of the Lambs). Personally, I prefer another pitch perfect 1934
comedy – The Thin Man – and the wonderful pairing of William Powell and Myrna
Loy, but I’m not going to complain about Gable winning for this excellent
performance.

Is It Their
Best Work: I think so –
although I know many would argue for Gone with the Wind.

Who Should
Have Won (Out of the Nominees): As
great as Gable is, I would have been tempted to go with William Powell for The
Thin Man.

Who Was
Overlooked Completely: W.C. Fields is
his usual great self in It’s a Gift.

15. Frederic
March, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

The Best Years of Our Lives was Frederic March’s
second Oscar win (14 years after winning for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and far
and away the more deserving one. Just a year after WWII ended, William Wyler
made this brilliant examination of three returning veterans, who all have
trouble fitting back in with the rest of society. March delivers the best
performance of the trio (the emotion of Harold Russell, a real life double
amputee, who also won is also quite good). He plays an older veteran coming
home – he works at a bank, and is now torn between loyalties to his fellow
vets, and new reality of a post war economy. This was a surprisingly thoughtful
examination of veterans and their struggles upon returning home – one that is
just as relevant today as it was then. March was the best of the nominees –
although I do think the not nominated Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s
Notorious was even better, I’m not really going to complain about this one.

Is It Their
Best Work: I think so – but he
did deliver quite a few great performances.

Who Should
Have Won (Out of the Nominees): Out
of the nominees, they picked the right one.

Who Was
Overlooked Completely: Cary Grant is
brilliant playing an asshole in Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious.

14. Art
Carney, Harry & Tonto (1974)

People are always baffled when they look at 1974,
and see that Art Carney won the Best Actor Oscar for Harry and Tonto, a film
most have never heard of, and not Al Pacino for The Godfather Part II or Jack
Nicholson for Chinatown. While I will admit that those choices would have been
better, I’m still not going to complain about Carney winning, because he is
brilliant in the film. He plays an old man, who when the movie opens refuses to
leave his apartment that he is being thrown out of. When he finally relents, he
and his beloved cat Tonto hit the road, where he meets all sort of interesting
people. Carney carries the movie with his sympathetic, sometimes hilarious
performance. And the scene where he says goodbye to Tonto, who he has to put
down, makes me misty just thinking about it, and is among the film moments that
made me cry the most. No, Art Carney should not have beaten Al Pacino or Jack
Nicholson that year – but I’m still not going to complain about it.

Is It Their
Best Work: Out of his film
work I have seen, this is Carney’s best cinematic performance.

Who Should
Have Won (Out of the Nominees): Pick
either Al Pacino in The Godfather Part II or Jack Nicholson in Chinatown and I
wouldn’t argue.

Who Was
Overlooked Completely: Gene Hackman
is brilliant in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation. Although Gena Rowlands
is better, Peter Falk deserved more praise for his work in A Woman Under the
Influence.

13. Gregory
Peck, To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Gregory Peck spent almost his entire career being
the moral upstanding man – the guy who you could always count on to do the
right thing, no matter what. This means that some of his characters and
performances can be rather dull when viewed today. It also means that he was the
perfect choice to play Atticus Finch – the hero of Harper Lee’s novel, a great
lawyer who takes on a case that no one else will because it’s the right thing
to do – and even if he loses, he’s still heroic. The movie itself is not quite
as great Peck’s performance – but I cannot think of flaw in that performance,
or another actor who could have given it. In many ways, this is the
prototypical Oscar performance – I’m not going to deny it hits on any number of
clichés – but here, they feel genuine and earned. Yes, I think Peter O’Toole
delivered a better performance in Lawrence of Arabia – but do I really want to
argue that much about this one? No.

Is It Their
Best Work: I would say so –
Peck was a great actor, but he rarely appeared in too many great films. This
role suited him perfectly.

Who Should
Have Won (Out of the Nominees): Peter
O’Toole’s breakthrough performance in Lawrence of Arabia stands as one of the
greats in cinema history – and would have gotten my vote.

Who Was
Overlooked Completely: Peck’s Cape
Fear co-star Robert Mitchum makes that film far greater than it probably should
be.

12. Philip
Seymour Hoffman, Capote (2005)

Philip Seymour Hoffman didn’t really look like
Truman Capote in his day to day life, but in Bennett Miller’s excellent film,
he transforms himself into the late writer – nailing his vocal mannerisms and
movements precisely, but also getting under his skin, to show us all the sides
of Capote – genius writer, celebrity, witty intellectual and opportunist.
Hoffman carries the movie, and is brilliant in every scene. The film
concentrates on his time writing In Cold Blood, and while I ultimately think
the film is too hard on Capote (he didn’t kill the people, Perry Smith and Dick
Hickock did, and even if Capote exploited them, he wrote a masterpiece about
them that gave them back their humanity), I do think Hoffman is utterly
brilliant. Heath Ledger’s performance in Brokeback Mountain is arguably as good
if not better, but it’s so close, and Hoffman was such a great actor (he should
have won a couple of Oscars), I’m not going to complain about it.

Is It Their
Best Work: No, I would say
Synecdoche, New York. And Hoffman was perhaps even better when doing supporting
work – in films like Boogie Nights, Happiness, Almost Famous or Punch-Drunk
Love.

Who Should
Have Won (Out of the Nominees): I
won’t argue against Hoffman, but I may well have gone with Heath Ledger’s heartbreaking
performance in Brokeback Mountain.

Who Was
Overlooked Completely: Viggo
Mortenson, great at playing two different sides of the character in
Cronenberg’s A History of Violence.

11. Daniel
Day-Lewis, Lincoln (2012)

The most impressive thing about Daniel Day-Lewis’
performance in Lincoln for me is that he plays him as a man, not an icon. It would
have been easier to play Lincoln as the figure we all have in our head of the
man – large and imposing, given to speechifying, but aided by Tony Kushner’s
brilliant screenplay and Steven Spielberg’s surprisingly intimate direction,
Day-Lewis lets us see the man behind that image. His vocal choice was
controversial – but to me, just about perfect. He is great when he telling
stories, but just as great in the smaller, quieter moments he has. It is easier
to win Oscars for playing famous people – just look back over this list for
many examples – but sometimes that honor is earned. Yes, I do believe Joaquin
Phoenix’s performance in The Master is even better than this one – but there is
no way I’m going to complain about this win.

Is It Their
Best Work: For most actors,
this would be far and away their best screen work. For Day-Lewis, it’s probably
number 2 (he still has one win coming up).

Who Should
Have Won (Out of the Nominees): I
won’t argue against Day-Lewis, but Joaquin Phoenix’s work in The Master is tricky
and brilliant.

Who Was
Overlooked Completely: Jean-Louis
Tringnault watched his Amour co-star Emmanuelle Riva (deservedly) win a lot of
awards, and yet was almost universally overlooked – which is odd.

About Me

I am an accountant, living in Brantford, ON - and although I am married and have beautiful daughter, I still find time to watch a lot of movies. This blog is mostly reviews of new movies - with other musing thrown in as well.